Bruder Spaghettus and the Pastafarian struggle in Germany

PRI has a story about Pastafarian minister Bruder Spaghettus and his struggle for the recognition of Pastafarianism in Germany.

He [Bruder] is convinced that religion holds a privileged place in German society and that non-believers lack the same civil rights.

Weida is a 63-year-old retiree who lives in the town of Templin. It’s about an hour’s drive outside of Berlin and happens to be Angela Merkel’s hometown. Templin is also where Weida founded the “Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster,” in September last year. As one of the leading “Pastafarians” at the church, or non-church more accurately, Weida goes by the alias of “Bruder Spaghettus.”

Weekly “Noodle Worship” begins at 10 a.m. Fridays in a small building on Weida’s farmstead on the outskirts of town. It looks and feels somewhat like weekly worship services at mainstream Christian churches. There is an altar, time for prayers, scripture readings, hymns, and even a version of Holy Communion. But the similarities end pretty quickly.

It’s a good article, but I find it a bit slanted in terms of calling us Atheists, not Believers in the FSM, and referring to Pastafarianism as a non-religion. When I see these tactics, I wonder if the writer does it purposely, as a means to get the article published. Still an interesting read.

Dear s&w, the prophet, Bobby, is usually up to date with info. because he has a direct connection to the Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM). The only time the prophet doesn’t have up to date info. is whenever the FSM is drunk, which is usually all the time.

You lost me, buddy. I mean, I suppose I get what youre saying. I understand what you are saying, but you just seem to have overlooked that you’ll find some other individuals within the world who look at this issue for what it really is and may perhaps not agree with you. You may perhaps be turning away a lot of men and women who might have been supporters of your website.

That’s a completely valid crtisciim!And, at least in a physical sense, it isn’t that different than a tree falling in the woods. If trees and woods follow all the relevant physical laws to the letter, regardless of who’s looking or not looking, then a falling tree will definitely make a sound ( sound here defined as the vibration of the air, as opposed to the act of perceiving that vibration). In order for a falling tree not to make any sound, but only when no one is around, requires some pretty fancy physics. So while no one has ever heard a tree fall when they weren’t there to hear it, most people (physicists at least) assume that the noise still happens.Same idea with Many Worlds. You just keep using the physical laws we know about, and you end up with the MWI. Other interpretations of quantum mechanics tend to need a lot of very weird physical laws that violate other, well-established laws.The laws you need to get around MWI aren’t a lot more complicated, or less weird, than (taking form this example) the moment that no one is within earshot, air suddenly loses the ability to vibrate .